Epstein May Save Us

Note from Joe: I wrote this. I didn't enjoy it. It's certainly a love/hate endeavor. Writing about trump, PrumpTutin, and Epstein gives me a gut ache. It took me a long time to write this, and it made me sad.

I'm 80 years old. Survived Vietnam. The draft. Friends who didn't come back. Nixon's enemies list. Watergate. Civil rights battles - dogs and firehoses, murdered freedom riders. Reagan's bullshit. Bush Junior. Watched Kennedy die on TV. MLK. Bobby. Lived through the Cold War thinking we'd all get nuked. Hid under my desk at school. Saw the Wall come down. Thought we were done with this shit, and I'd paid my dues. This is not fair to me. I'd rather be writing about something that makes sense to people other than about PrumpTutin and Elon.

Now I'm explaining why pardoning child traffickers is wrong. Why calling teenage girls "stolen property" matters. Basic stuff. Kindergarten morality. Ridiculous and sad.

We're supposed to be smarter than this.

I included citations because the situation is unbelievable.

Lanying made tea. The cat left when I started swearing.

Part One: The Epstein Exception

It's the Little Things That Count

Tariffs? Too complicated. Immigration policy? Their heads hurt. Constitutional law? Big words they can't pronounce. Progressive taxation versus trickle-down economics? Might as well be quantum physics. A coup attempt? Ancient history.

But Epstein they get.

Rich old pervert. Young girls. Bad.

The coverup. Lies. Bribes. Threats.

That clicks.

Their daughter. His hands. Her terror, they understand.

Talk to one, you've talked to them all. Same words, same outrage, same blind spots. The conditioning runs deep. But even the best cult programming has glitches.

Finally. Something that breaks through the Fox News programming.

And for the first time, some of them are actually mad at trump.

The Breaking Point

trump's distractions are all branches of the evil tree meant to entangle us. Each outrage spawns ten more. Each scandal breeds confusion. We exhaust ourselves hacking at branches while the roots grow deeper.

Suing Rupert Murdoch. Fighting with DeSantis. Truth Social posts at 3 AM. McDonald's photo ops. Fake Time covers. Wrestling with reporters. Tariffs-branches of distraction.

"The Democrats don't matter," Bannon told journalist Michael Lewis. "The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit."¹²

Endless branches. Endless noise. We chase every squirrel while he burns down democracy.

The tree grows. We tire. They win.

But Epstein is different. Not another branch to hack at. A clean axe stroke at the trunk.

Here's where it gets interesting: trump just told reporters Epstein "stole" Virginia Giuffre from Mar-a-Lago. "I think she worked at the spa. I think so. I think that was one of the people. Yeah, he stole her."¹

Property. That's how he sees her. Like a golf cart.

They watched this man try to steal democracy. Called it patriotism. Cheered the fake electors. Loved "find 11,780 votes." Applauded when he sent a mob to stop the count.

But Epstein? Different story.

Not when he mocked disabled reporters. Not when he called war dead "losers." Not when he torched 250 years of peaceful power transfers.

Not when a jury said he sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll.² Not 34 felony convictions.³ Not abandoning allies who bled alongside our troops.

Carroll won $88.3 million from this sexual abuser. She hasn't seen a dime. trump posted a $91 million bond and tied it up in appeals. The system protects its own.

Abandoned out Kurdish allies-families hunted down like animals. Children blown apart. ISIS prisoners walking free. The same people shrieking about Epstein's crimes? Silence.

Not "grab them by the pussy."⁴ Not 26 sexual assault allegations.⁵

But one Manhattan party photo and suddenly they remember right from wrong.

The Selective Outrage

The crowd that rationalized election theft, celebrated a proven rapist, and cheered genocide draws the line at child trafficking.

All those other crimes? Too complicated. But pedophilia? That's where their programming breaks down.

Even cult worship has limits.

For years now, trumpers have been arguing from an extreme point of view detached from reality. They've been pulled so far into the void that up is down, black is white, and treason is patriotism. They've defended the indefensible so long they forgot what defensible looks like.

But children? That's different. That's where even the most deranged programming hits a wall.

These people believe Clinton visited Epstein's island despite zero evidence. Flight logs show Clinton's 26+ trips went to Asia, Europe, Africa for Clinton Foundation work. Never the Caribbean. Secret Service has no island records. FBI found "total absence" of required documentation. Island witnesses never saw him there.⁸

They believe it anyway. Because it's Clinton. Simple thought. No evidence needed.

Meanwhile, they ignore the documented connections. trump calling Epstein a "terrific guy" who "likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."⁹ trump's name in Epstein's private phone book. Multiple flights together. Mar-a-Lago as recruiting central.

trump: "I never had the privilege of going to his island."¹¹

The privilege. Of visiting a child trafficking operation. His own words.

The Final Irony

The people who spent years calling everyone else "groomers" over library books and drag shows are now defending actual child traffickers. They screamed "save the children" while supporting a man who describes trafficking victims as stolen property.

They'll still vote for the man who talks about teenage girls like golf carts.

Maybe not.

Maybe enough peel away when they hear "he stole her" and picture their own daughters stepping off that plane. Maybe this exception - this one crime their programming can't excuse - cracks the foundation just enough.

Sometimes the smallest truth brings down the biggest lie.

Part Two: How This Could Actually Matter

Historical Precedent

Al Capone ran Chicago. Bootlegging, murder, corruption on an industrial scale. The feds couldn't touch him until they nailed him for tax evasion. Something small. Something simple. Something even his bought judges couldn't rationalize away.

John Gotti. The Teflon Don. Beat case after case until they got him for racketeering - not the murders, the extortion, the drug running. The paperwork.

Martha Stewart. Built an empire, played the system like a violin. What brought her down? Insider trading on a stock sale that saved her $45,000. Pocket change for her, but simple enough for a jury to understand.

Child trafficking isn't small. It's one of humanity's worst crimes. But compared to hundreds of thousands dead from COVID lies? Compared to Kurdish allies hunted down like animals, their children blown apart? Compared to democracy itself on fire?

In the ledger of trump's atrocities, raping children is somehow the lesser offense.

Yet it's the one they understand. The one they can't rationalize. The one that makes them see their own daughters' faces.

Sometimes the smallest crack brings down the whole wall.

And that might save us from four more years of this.

The Personal Angle

Here's how it works: Maxwell talks to save herself. Clears trump. More victims come forward. The details get ugly fast. Real ugly. Not abstract policy failures or constitutional crises they can't follow. Stories about teenage girls that make them see their own daughters' faces.

Problem: Nobody believes child traffickers. Her word means nothing. The victims' stories mean everything.

trump's media machine will kick in. They'll attack the victims, spin the stories, flood the zone with bullshit. The hardcore cult will double down like they always do.

But it only takes a few percent. Soccer moms in the suburbs. Fathers with teenage daughters. People who held their noses and voted for him anyway, telling themselves it was about the economy or immigration or whatever helped them sleep at night.

Took them twenty years to find that line.

The Coverup in Real Time

Now trump's floating pardons for Maxwell if she "testifies openly and honestly" to clear him.⁶ Problem: she's doing 20 years for sex trafficking minors.⁷ Her credibility is worth less than confederate currency.

And the machine keeps rewarding her. Maxwell just got moved from a federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas after her interview with trump's lawyer. Twenty years for trafficking children, but she gets the country club treatment.

Same deal with Diddy. Another predator ready to say whatever trump wants for a get-out-of-jail card.

They're pardoning the traffickers to protect the customer.

That's your real scandal. Not the parties. Not the photos. The coverup happening right now. Presidential pardons as hush money.

Why This Time Is Different

The personal angle works because they have daughters and the issue is simple. Old man fucks underage girls.

Teenage girls who could be "recruited" from their jobs. Groomed at 12. Traded like poker chips.

Air traffic controllers watched Epstein's plane land with girls who looked 11 or 12. No luggage. Just children.¹⁰

Picture that. Your daughter stepping off a plane with no suitcase. No return ticket. Just a rich old man's promise that everything would be fine.

Making billionaires richer? Too abstract. This isn't.

Now trump talks about trafficking victims like stolen merchandise. "I think she worked at the spa. Yeah, he stole her."

The Electoral Math

The margins matter. Elections turn on 50,000 votes in three states. It doesn't take a revolution. Just enough parents who can't stomach voting for someone who talks about teenage girls like property from his country club.

When their own guy describes a trafficking victim as stolen merchandise? When he's floating pardons for the traffickers? When the details involve girls their daughters' age?

That's different. That's personal. That's real in a way that constitutional crises never will be.

Pedophilia is something they can wrap their 'minds' around. Even cult worship has limits.

And that might be enough.

But now there's another wrinkle.

The Final Cost

Virginia Giuffre killed herself at 41. Mother of three children: Christian, 19. Noah, 16. Emily, 15.

The woman trump called "stolen property" is dead.

She died by suicide on April 25, 2025, at her farm in Western Australia. The same week trump floated pardons for Maxwell and Diddy. Presidential pardons as hush money.

The star witness is dead. The woman who could name names, connect dots, fill in the flight logs. The one who sued Prince Andrew and won. The one who made rich men sweat.

Gone.

Virginia Giuffre's family shared a portion of a handwritten note she left behind. In the note, she wrote: "Mothers, Fathers, Sisters, and Brothers need to show the battle lines are drawn and stand together to fight for the future of victims. Is protesting the answer? I don't know. But we've got to start somewhere." A spokesperson for the family stated that the message was not a "final note."

Her children will grow up without their mother. The woman who fought monsters for two decades finally lost the war. Not to the traffickers or the enablers or the royal family's lawyers.

Lost to the weight of carrying all that truth alone.

Her family described her children as the "light of her life," noting that the birth of her daughter was the pivotal moment that drove her public fight for justice and survivor advocacy. She fought for them. And for every other child who might be called "stolen property" by rich old men.

The system that protected her abusers broke her. Exactly as designed.

The machine wins. The witnesses disappear. The files get sealed. The pardons get signed.

Bloomberg reported Friday that trump's name and others were redacted from Epstein documents, citing multiple people familiar with the matter.¹³ The coverup continues in real time.

And three children learn what happens when you tell the truth about powerful men.

Sources & Citations:

¹ trump on Giuffre being "stolen" from Mar-a-Lago: White House press pool, January 30, 2025

² E. Jean Carroll verdict: Manhattan federal jury, May 9, 2023

³ 34 felony convictions: Manhattan Criminal Court, May 30, 2024

⁴ "Grab them by the pussy": Access Hollywood tape, October 7, 2016

⁵ 26 sexual assault allegations: Compiled by Business Insider, PBS NewsHour, 2023

⁶ trump pardons discussion: CNN exclusive report, January 29, 2025

⁷ Ghislaine Maxwell sentencing: U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, June 28, 2022

⁸ Clinton flight logs analysis: FBI investigation documents, 2019 FOIA release

⁹ trump calling Epstein "terrific guy": New York Magazine profile, October 28, 2002

¹⁰ Air traffic controller testimony: Epstein grand jury documents, 2024 release

¹¹ trump on "privilege" of Epstein island visit: Scotland press conference, July 28, 2025

¹² Steve Bannon "flood the zone with shit": Interview with Michael Lewis, February 2018

¹³ trump's name redacted from Epstein documents: Bloomberg, August 2025

¹⁴ E. Jean Carroll award total: $88.3 million across two cases, appeals pending